Channing Dungey, who left ABC only a month ago as its entertainment head, is taking a high-ranking executive position at Netflix, the streaming company announced on Monday.
Ms. Dungey, who was the first black executive to run an entertainment division at a major network, will become a vice president of original content, Netflix said. She will report to Cindy Holland, who has been with the company for 16 years and is also a vice president for original content.
This is the third time in a year and a half that Netflix has hired a veteran of ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the ABC hits “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” is now overseeing a broad slate of original programming that may hit the service next year. Kenya Barris, the creator of “Black-ish,” also recently signed a deal with Netflix after his relationship with ABC soured.
Netflix said Ms. Dungey will oversee “a large and crucial portion” of its original content, including the company’s deals with several successful showrunners. In her new role, Ms. Dungey will be reunited with Ms. Rhimes and Mr. Barris, as well as overseeing other major producers like Jenji Kohan (“Orange Is the New Black,” “Glow”) and Marti Noxon (“UnREAL,” “Sharp Objects”) who have deals with Netflix. Netflix said Ms. Dungey will help oversee programming that will be made by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions production company.
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“I’m invigorated by the challenges ahead and the opportunity to forge new relationships, and excited for the very welcome reunion with incredible talent,” Ms. Dungey said in a statement
Hollywood cheered Ms. Dungey this year for her short, decisive statement when ABC made the decision to cancel “Roseanne” after the show’s star, Roseanne Barr, made a racist comment on Twitter. Ms. Dungey called the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
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Subscribe to The TimesThe ratings at the network have continued to falter however. Though ABC found a hit in “The Good Doctor,” now in its second season, it remains in last place among the major broadcast networks.
Still, Disney and ABC wanted to keep Ms. Dungey, whose contract was set to expire next year. When Disney closes on its acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox, the company will welcome new executives. Ms. Dungey, had she stayed, would have reported to Dana Walden, currently the co-chief executive of the Fox Television Group. Ms. Dungey elected to announce her departure in November. Ms. Walden told The Hollywood Reporter this month that she “made it very clear” to Ms. Dungey that she wanted her to stay.
There will be plenty of programming for Ms. Dungey to oversee at Netflix.
In 2018, there were 495 original scripted series that were broadcast or streamed, the highest total ever, according to the cable channel FX. Though the broadcast networks and basic cable channels actually aired fewer series this year, the total number of shows grew because of the explosive growth of online services like Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and Hulu. This year, there were 160 original series from digital companies, up from 33 in 2014.